Geyer's Oven is located on Dave and Anna Geyer's farm, about 20 minutes west of Iowa City on Rohret Rd. For those of you who know about Anna's Cutting Garden, it's the same place.
Several years ago we were told by a friend that we should build our own outdoor masonry oven. We both liked the idea. Anna organized a three day workshop, invited Alan Scott of Ovencrafters to lead, and opened it up to people from around the state who wanted to learn how to build their own ovens. Unable to come himself, Alan sent his son Nick Scott who calmly led us through the process. We had a great weekend together and finished the oven core in those three days. One of the workshop participants was a stone mason from Decorah name Ted. We had a pile of limestone in the pasture that we salvaged from the foundation of an old house. Ted looked at the stone, assured us that it was solid enough to use again, and invited us to Decorah to get some lessons on stonework. We had a great time learning the craft as well as learning to exercise patience in the long process of building the oven.
Dave fabricated a beautiful standing seam roof and the oven was finally done! We've been making pizza since 2005 and bread since 2006. |